I rely on common sense perhaps more than I should when it comes to matters of health. I don’t smoke, for example, even though for years there was no “hard evidence” that definitively established a cause-and-effect link between cigarettes and cancer. But my instinct was that it’s less than ideal to blast my lungs with a vaporous cocktail containing thousands of toxic chemicals. The mountains of epidemiological data connecting the nicotine habit to diseases of the lungs also persuaded me not to light up.

The Dangers of Snow Blowers

This incident happened to a friend from Cleveland, Ohio last year.  Instead of spending a joyous Christmas with friends and family, she was coping with the removal of part of one of her fingers due to an accident with a snow blower.

Cleveland is notorious for its lake-effect snow, and my friend had used snow blowers for years.  This time, however, she did something that she knew she should not do, but still had done many times.  She reached down with her glove, and with the blower still on, she tried to release a piece of ice wedged in the snow blower.  My friend claims that it was probably the type of gloves she wore that played a part in this, but nevertheless, the result of her action was that she felt something cut into her hand.  Instantly, she knew what happened and called to her roommate who called an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

IT'S TIME TO GASP!

Last December, Reuters reported that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had identified 13 nuclear reactors that were susceptible to developing tiny cracks. The last of the thirteen to be shut down and inspected was the Davis-Besse plant, near Toledo, Ohio.